'Shawskank' denied parole for role in prison break

Joyce Mitchell, 52, is serving up to seven years for her role in the "Shawshank Redemption"-style breakout, which sparked a weeks-long manhunt in upstate NY in the summer of 2015 that ended with one inmate's death and the other's recapture".

The decision, released Monday by the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said that Mitchell's parole would not be granted "merely as a reward for good conduct or efficient performance of duties while confined".

She's the state prison employee in Dannemora, Clinton County who helped two risky convicts, Richard Matt and David Sweat, escape in 2015. Mitchell worked at the prison and was involved in a relationship with the pair.

Officers shot and killed Matt on June 26, 2015. Sweat was captured two days after that.

Mitchell is eligible to apply for parole again after she serves more time. But it questioned the propriety of her stated goal to work in criminal justice again after her release.

Mitchell was convicted of providing the two with some of the tools they used to break out of their cells, and she was supposed to have been their getaway driver, but she suffered an apparent panic attack on the day of escape and ended up in the hospital. The state released the board's decision today, according to NBC 5. But the board said her statements to investigators included lies and half-truths offered piecemeal.

The panel's decision to deny Mitchell's early release was unanimous, the decision notes.

"This apparently willful failure to volunteer comprehensive and truthful disclosure of information began during the investigation and continued during your interview with the board", states the board's written decision.

Mitchell smuggled hacksaw blades to Matt and Sweat, leading to the escape.